Those Stars Burn Like Diamonds
by Tropical Medlies
Summary: Emily still had no idea how Paige had managed to rope her into going camping, but there they were. One-shot.


"Let's go camping."

Emily opened her eyes and turned her head, squinting at her girlfriend. Paige was looking at her expectantly, her book splayed open on her stomach and all but abandoned now that she had thought of this clearly brilliant idea. Or so her expression said.

"Um, what?"

"Camping! Let's go camping!" Paige sat up from her plastic beach chair and wriggled around a bit like an excited puppy, and Emily sighed a bit at how adorable she was. Already she could feel her resolve weakening and an argument hadn't even been made.

"But why can't we just sit here and, you know, keep doing this? It's so nice!" Emily said, motioning to the area around them. They were currently situated in Paige's backyard by her in-ground swimming pool, laying out on long recliner chairs and sunning themselves. Emily was content enough to just lie there and enjoy the feeling of just _being_ with her girlfriend on such a nice day, while Paige amused herself by reading another one of her twenty-five books that she swore she was going to finish by the end of the summer. She was doing well so far, except for the fact that she kept getting interrupted by a certain dark-eyed girl with a husky voice and a lot of needs that Paige was more than happy to help with, which meant her books fell by the wayside.

"Because doing this all the time is just going to ruin it, Em," Paige explained, picking her book up off of her stomach and standing up, stretching. Emily didn't even try to hide the fact that she was checking her out. "Really, Emily?" She put her hands on her hips and leaned down in front of Emily's chair, well aware of the view her bikini was affording Emily. "So, can we go camping?"

Emily nodded. "Camping sounds fun. I like camping. Camping. Yeah." Paige rolled her eyes, kissed Emily's forehead, and wandered back into her house, shaking her head at just how easy her girlfriend was to deal with sometimes. Not that it wasn't a two-way street - Paige was probably the more whipped of the two - but man, that had been an easy argument to win.

—

"I hate you," Emily grumbled, arms folded across her chest, staring out the window of Paige's 2010 Ford Edge. Paige glanced over from the driver's side and grinned.

"No, you don't. You're going to have loads of fun and then you're going to thank me for it."

"I doubt it."

The two of them had woken up at five o'clock that morning (Emily had slept over at Paige's the night before on an air mattress in the living room at the request of Paige's parents, which she acquiesced to because she knew it was the proper thing to do), packed the back of Paige's car with all of the things that they would need for a weekend of camping, and had started on their way. The nearest campground was an hour away from Rosewood, but the two of them liked long car rides, something they had found out early into their relationship. If only they could agree on the same radio station, they thought, as they flicked between channels at every opportunity. Emily was still a bit sleepy and dubious about this entire thing, but Paige was vibrating with energy (and two cups of coffee).

"Stop jittering around, you're going to crash the car and kill us," Emily grumbled, pulling her sweatshirt over her hands and putting them under her head, curling into a little ball against the car door. Emily still had no idea how Paige had managed to rope her into going camping, but there they were. Paige looked over again and at a red light near the edge of Rosewood leaned over to pat Emily's head.

"I promise, you'll have fun." Emily made a little noise and within moments was asleep. Paige turned the radio off so that she could sleep peacefully and focused on her driving, although she couldn't help but glance at Emily once in a while and wonder how she had gotten so lucky. She couldn't imagine a lot of girls actually going through with camping without a huge argument (Emily was really only putting up a minor fuss and Paige didn't mind it).

She was so lucky.

—

Paige unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned over the console to gently shake Emily's shoulder. At some point during the ride the other girl had woken up long enough to pull her hood over her face and then she had curled back up again, and Paige smiled at how cute she looked, all wrapped up in her two sizes too big sweatshirt that was actually Paige's. "Hey, Em. Em, we're here."

Emily shook her head, then slowly sat up, rubbing her eyes and pushing down the hood of her sweatshirt. She eyed the campground blearily. "Oh, Jesus Christ," she muttered, voice raspy from sleep. Paige grinned at her cheerfully. There was only a sign that said "Lancaster Falls Campgrounds" and what looked like a worn trail that led into a copse of trees. Paige had Googled the place and found that there were little places to set up tents all over campground but it wasn't really large enough to get lost and there weren't very many animals - or, rather, there weren't very many reported animals. She could only hope that she and Emily wouldn't be the first ones to have to report a bear attack.

She popped the trunk and got out of the car, watching as Emily did the same, stumbling a bit as she was still a little sleepy, and began to unload some of their things. They had packed light, as the website suggested, and brought just enough to last them for all day Saturday, Saturday night, and part of Sunday. Paige hoisted her backpack onto her shoulders and handed Emily hers. Emily glared at Paige before putting hers on as well, glad that years of swimming had given her the strength to hold all of the equipment they needed.

Paige bounced on the tips of her toes. "To the campground!" she cried, arm outstretched, and walked forward, since she couldn't exactly race with all of the gear on her. Emily shook her head, looked up to the sky, wondered why she did this for the millionth time, and trudged after her.

—

"Okay, so I think you're supposed to put rod A into slot D…"

"You're never putting your rod into my slot again."

"Emily, will you just help me?"

The two of them had been trying to set up their tent for a good hour or so now and they hadn't gotten anywhere. The canvas part of their tent was still lying on the ground and all of the other pieces were still just rolling around on the ground. Paige had the instructions in one hand, a rod in the other, and a confused look on her face. Emily was sitting amongst the pieces, looking extremely annoyed.

"I think that this is supposed to go here, isn't it?" Paige held out the instructions to Emily, who took the paper and scanned it briefly before shaking her head and picking up the right piece.

"No, it's this one right here." Paige handed over the piece Emily was pointing at and then several more as the girl asked for them, and in no time at all their tent was starting to look like, well, a tent. Paige was incredulous.

"Emily, how?"

Emily shrugged her shoulders and put the finishing touches on the tent before straightening up. "It was easy. I just read the instructions. Okay, check out the inside, Miss McCullers." She held open the tent's flap and Paige dropped down to crawl inside, giving it a once-over before popping back out and giving Emily a thumbs up. "Good. Now, can you manage the grill or do I have to do that, too?"

Paige stood up and brushed the dirt off of her knees, giving Emily a look. "Ha ha. Of course I can manage the grill, Emily." Each little section of the campground came with a small concrete grill that had an area for a fire and a grate to cook food. It didn't look too complicated and Paige was very sure that she could handle it. If all the other campers that came before her could do it then Paige McCullers damn well could do it. Her fighting spirit wouldn't let her say she couldn't.

—

Paige stared dejectedly at the grill from afar, Emily munching on Trail Mix beside her. Emily reached out and patted Paige on the shoulder comfortingly. "It's okay, Paige. I'm sure that a lot of people can't figure out how to work it. I mean, I couldn't, either." In reality, Emily knew how to do it. She had seen her father do it a thousand times when the family had gone on vacation but she wasn't about to let Paige know that. She didn't need her girlfriend's pride to be hurt anymore. Paige hung her head and held out a hand for more Trail Mix.

"Maybe I'm not cut out for camping," she sighed. Emily rubbed her shoulder before scooting over to lean into Paige.

"Oh, come on. We still have half the day and night and then tomorrow! Who knows what else can happen? Maybe you'll conquer the grill before we leave," she said, smiling at Paige and propping her chin on her shoulder. Paige rolled her eyes, not cheered up in the least. Emily smirked and put the Trail Mix down, then rested her hand on Paige's thigh, her lips finding their way to just under Paige's ear. Paige's eyes fluttered shut.

"I thought my rod wasn't going in your slot ever again?"

"Exceptions could be made," Emily murmured, breath hot against Paige's skin as she shifted the other girl down and straddled her. Their lips connected and Emily worked quickly, her hand coming between the two of them to pop open the button on Paige's shorts. Paige pushed Emily away for a minute to pull her shirt over her head and then she came back, pressing flush against Paige as they kissed. Just as Emily was tracing the band of Paige's underwear, voices could be heard from their right. The girls scrambled up and away from each other, Paige trying to button her shorts as quickly as possible and Emily trying to find her shirt that had been tossed haphazardly away. She managed to tug it on right before a small group of people came into view of their campsite.

"Oh, hello, there! Look, guys, campers!"

"Hi!"

"Howya doing?"

"Nice day we're having, right, girls?"

"Great weather, actually!"

"You two should go on a hike later while the weather lasts; we heard that there might be a storm later on tonight."

"Oh, and if you do, check out the waterfall that's about a kilometer east of here. It's beautiful."

"Well, we best be on our way. It was nice meeting you!"

"Later, girls!"

"Bye!"

Emily and Paige could only stare wide-eyed at one another as the three (Canadian) hikers left them alone, wondering what in the hell had just happened.

—

The waterfall was beautiful, Emily would admit. Paige had gotten the idea into her head that they should take the hikers up on their idea of visiting the waterfall, and after they had used their phones to figure out what a kilometer was (reception was spotty and it had taken them ages of walking around but finally they had gotten just enough to get internet for all of five minutes) they had hiked the ten minutes it took to get there. When they got there, neither of them had really been prepared for how nice it would be.

There was a pool that was shallow enough to wade in on one end and deep enough to swim in on the other, and the waterfall was on the smaller side but it connected to small off-shoot of a larger river that ran for several miles, according to the map that Paige had brought along with them. After snapping a few pictures with her phone, Paige had set down her bag and turned to Emily with a gleam in her eye. Emily knew that gleam well.

"Paige, are you sure we should do - "

There was no use asking, because Paige was already pulling her shirt up and over her head and shimmying out of her shorts. Her shoes were kicked off and all of her clothes were placed next to her bag and then she was off and diving into the water. Emily bit her lip, hovering between joining her girlfriend and just watching her have fun and finally her innate need to be in the water won out and she stripped down, too. She waded in instead of jumping and flailed her arms a little. "Paige! It's freezing!"

Paige laughed, already lazily swimming near the waterfall. "It's not freezing, Em, you're just so hot that it feels like it's freezing. Come on, just jump in, it's fine!" Emily shook her head, arms wrapped around herself, and kept on awkwardly splashing around the shallow end, keeping an eye out for any sharp rocks or small creatures that might want to suddenly attack her. Maybe there were sharks in the pool. Were there freshwater sharks?

She was so wrapped up in her thinking about her imminent demise from freshwater sharks that were small enough to be in a pool this size that she didn't hear the quiet splashing from behind her and suddenly there were two arms around her waist. She screamed and Paige picked her up, tossing her back into the deep end. Emily surfaced a second later, spluttering and pushing wet hair out of her eyes. "Paige! Paige Elizabeth-Anne McCullers, you are so dead!" Paige simply grinned cheekily and waited for Emily to get within in a few feet before she splashed her. Emily returned the volley, laughing, and then tried to run away before Paige caught up to her. The two of them continued their little water war until finally Emily stopped to catch her breath, waving Paige off.

Paige stopped her attack and shook her hair out of her face, wading over to Emily. "Tired?" she asked, hoping that her girlfriend would say yes, because she definitely was. They could totally work in an hour- or two-long nap and then get right back to their camping activities. Emily nodded, still winded, and Paige went to fetch their things.

—

Paige was woken from her nap by a scream and Emily practically trying to climb into her sleeping bag. "What - ?" She fully expected a bear to be tearing down the tent that the two of them - well, Emily - had so painstakingly put together, or for a serial killer to be unzipping the tent flap and ready to hack them to pieces with his chainsaw. Maybe those hikers weren't so nice and Canadian (were the two synonymous? Was she being redundant? She was still half asleep and didn't even know what her thoughts were doing right now) and were actually cannibals or something and Emily had gone for a walk and had run into them and -

Oh. Right. Emily.

Emily was pointing at something in the corner of the tent and Paige squinted at it, hoping it wasn't a snake. She definitely would just die if she saw a snake in their tent. Or she'd crawl out of the tent with Emily and set fire to it and get in her car and drive away and never look back. Much to her relief there wasn't a snake in sight.

"Emily, what are you screaming about?" Paige asked, a little annoyed that she had been woken up now. If this was Emily's idea of a prank it was a pretty crappy one.

"Paige, the biggest freaking spider in the entire world is in the corner of the tent and you have to kill it!" Emily said, now firmly ensconced in Paige's sleeping bag with her. How she had managed to fit in there, Paige had no idea. With a groan, Paige unzipped the side of the sleeping bag again and grabbed one of her books (Emily had been less than impressed to find that Paige wanted to take three hardcover books with them for one overnight trip, but Paige insisted on it) to use as her weapon. A part of her was actually a little glad that this had happened, because now she could be the hero for her girl, just like she liked to be. She hadn't been able to handle the tent or the grill so far, but a spider? Paige could totally handle a spider.

She crept over to the corner on her hands and knees, looking for the spider, convinced that Emily had exaggerated the size of the thing because of her hatred of them. Once she had called Paige from upstairs, claiming that one of Aragog's descendants was on the ceiling, and Paige had raced upstairs to kill it only to find a tiny little spider no bigger than a dime just chilling in the middle of the ceiling. She actually felt sort of bad for it when she killed it. She really wasn't expecting any kind of behemoth of a spider to be lurking in the shadows of their tent, to be honest, but if made Emily feel better, she'd go along with it.

"Honey, I don't know if I see any spider."

"It's over there, I swear. I just saw it two seconds ago when I was going to get my water bottle. Paige, you can't miss it, it's huge."

"Em, _I _swear, it's not - oh my fucking God!"

Paige had found the spider. Oh, had she ever found the spider. Emily had not been exaggerating when she said it was huge. This spider was probably the spider that was a descendant of Aragog, not the one that had been in Emily's bedroom that time. In fact, this spider could have been Aragog. Paige stared at it, book held aloft, and she swore the spider stared back, just daring her to move.

Five minutes later _Paper Towns _by John Green had finished off Aragog II and Emily had been coaxed out of the sleeping bag after Paige had checked every other inch of the tent and around it for any other spiders. "My hero," Emily said in a fake Southern accent, eyelashes fluttering, hand on her heart. Paige rolled her eyes and shoved her shoulder lightly.

"Next time don't scream so loudly. I thought we were going to end up like _The Texas Chainsaw Massacre_."

—

Night fell a lot faster than the two of them anticipated and they managed, between the two of them, to start a small fire and make s'mores and cuddle. Paige took out one of the books she had brought and revealed it to be an astronomy book and Emily grinned at her. "But what about the trees?" Paige just put a finger to her lips and kept scanning the book, reading about the various constellations and the stories behind them. Emily remained quiet, sitting between Paige's legs with her head on Paige's chest, but she was just plain curious now.

Some time later, when it was completely dark and the nearly full moon shone brightly through gaps in the trees, Paige stood up and doused their campfire, then grabbed one of their flashlights, a blanket, and Emily's hand and led her a ways away from their camp. Emily had enough faith in her not to question her, but the farther away they got the more she wanted to ask if Paige definitely knew where she was going and if they were going to end up lost in the middle of nowhere and have to spend the night sleeping on the ground (which they were doing, but it just seemed so _different_ in a tent).

Soon they reached a tiny clearing, one that was maybe sixteen feet by ten feet, and Paige stopped there, dropping the blanket and smiling at Emily. Emily shook her head, not comprehending. "Paige, what are you - "

Paige pointed upwards and Emily's eyes followed, her question dying off as she saw a gap in the trees large enough for them to see a large expanse of the sky and the stars that dotted it. "Oh, Paige," she breathed, "When did you find this?"

"When you were sleeping earlier, before I fell asleep and the whole spider incident happened," Paige said, squeezing Emily's hand sympathetically when she felt her shudder in remembrance. Then she set about spreading out the blanket and two of them laid down on it, much in the way they did the first time they ever had a picnic together. Emily had to smile at the memory, wondering if Paige was thinking about it, too. She turned her head away from the sky and to Paige, who was holding the book out in front of her face and trying to match up one of the constellations with a determined look on her face. Something about the way that Paige bit her lip, the way her finger traced the lines of the book, the way the stars reflected in her eyes made Emily's throat close up, and she reached out to take the book from Paige gently.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Paige went to take the book back, intent on finding the Big Dipper as if her life depended on it, but something in the way Emily was looking at her made her stop. She was laying on her side now, one hand under her head as a makeshift pillow and the other holding onto Paige's book, fingers absently tracing patterns on the cover as she gazed at Paige. Paige rolled to her side and self-consciously hid behind her hands, peeking over the top at Emily.

"I love you." Emily had said the words to Paige so many times before but she had never felt quite so in love with her before as she did now. Even if she had been dragged on this trip in the first place and hadn't been looking forward to it at all, she'd had a lot of fun in just one day. Paige had a way of bringing out the adventurer in her, of making her try new things, and of making her just have fun with life. She loved her so much for that.

Paige smiled behind her hands and then lowered them, taking the hand that Emily had on the book in her own and tangling their fingers together. "I love you too, Em. A lot. Enough to kill all the spiders in the world." She nodded solemnly, and Emily giggled.

"I love you enough to go on lame camping trips with you."

"I love you enough to let you have the last Reese's cup."

"I love you enough to listen to only country music for the rest of my life."

"I love you enough to give up swimming."

"Really?"

"Maybe not that much."

"Paige!"

"Okay, okay, I love you that much."

"You always know how to ruin a moment."

Paige stuck her tongue out at Emily and then shifted closer to her, keeping their hands together. "See that one there?" Emily tilted her head so that it was touching Paige's, trying to get as close to her vantage point as possible. She finally nodded, a bit hesitant. "That's Scorpius. Then, um, there's Draco." Emily glanced at Paige, one eyebrow raised.

"Are you just throwing Harry Potter names at me now?"

"No, I swear those are in the book! Check for yourself!" Paige waited the full three minutes that it took for Emily to look up the constellations and for her to admit that, yes, those were the real names of the real constellations that were best visible in July, which was why Paige was pointing them out. "Stop doubting me so much, Em."

Emily rolled her eyes. "I let you drag me out here in the dark, didn't I?"

"That was a mistake on your part. Now, there's Hercules…"

—

It was just past seven in the morning when the first bird started. Only a few short seconds later another joined in, and then another, and then another.

Emily and Paige laid awake in their tent, wondering if they could find a gun and shoot all of the birds and then go back to sleep. They had stayed up late stargazing and once they had gotten back to the tent had virtually crashed, exhausted from the events of the day despite their naps. Now the birds were intent on getting them up early, although Paige supposed that was for the best. They wanted to leave around one that afternoon and get back to Rosewood at two so that Emily could go to some thing that she and Aria, Hanna, and Spencer had planned a few weeks ago.

Paige rolled herself over once and then again so that she was half on top of Emily and then grinned at her. "Hi."

Emily made a face at her. "Morning."

Paige picked out a few leaves from Emily's hair, wondering how those got into their tent, and then locked her fingers together and rested her chin on top of those on top of Emily's chest. "What do you want to do before we leave? Anything we haven't done yet that you've always wanted to do while camping?" Emily shook her head, trying unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn. Paige wrinkled her nose. "Maybe you should try brushing your teeth and combing your hair. I think the humidity is getting to it. It looks like it's trying to become its own person," she joked, reaching out to touch it. Emily slapped her hand away, one eyebrow raised in warning.

"Okay, okay, wow, touchy," Paige grumbled, rolling off. The two of them went outside and used the water to brush their teeth and tried their best to tame their hair with what they had on them and then ended up just putting their hair in ponytails, figuring that it was less hassle. Then it was back into the tent to change, which they realized was soon a bad idea, because it was way too small for the both of them to change in there at once.

"Paige, ow!"

"Emily, it's not my fault that you're right there!"

"But it's not my fault that you're right there!"

"Maybe if you'd go right there - "

" - and you went right there - "

" - that could work - "

" - it would work."

"I think I found what I want to do today."

—

"We still have another three hours before we're supposed to leave, Em!" Paige said, as the two of them started to dismantle the tent. Emily slid the poles out of the canvas and haphazardly threw the canvas into one of their bags before trying to figure out how to fold up the poles.

"So? Pick what you want us to do, then. I already picked what I wanted us to do," she said absentmindedly, accidentally breaking one of the thin poles. "Well, damn." Nonetheless, she put it in the bag with the rest of the tent stuff and looked up at Paige expectantly.

"Okay, first of all, you didn't pick what you wanted us to do this morning, you picked what you wanted to do this morning and that was me, so that didn't count because that's not a camping related activity." Emily smirked wickedly at Paige and Paige gave her a 'keep it up' look. "But fine, since you want me to figure out something we can do for the next few hours, why don't we do something like…" she trailed off, not exactly sure what they could do. It was then that she caught sight of the bags once more and she clapped her hands together then pointed at them. "Yes!"

Emily's eyes followed her gaze and she shook her head. "Paige, no. I don't even know why your dad told you to pack those things." Paige ignored her as she opened up the bag and pulled out the two small collapsible fishing poles that her father had bought years ago to bring with him on his "boys' weekends" with his friends. He had told the girls to bring them in case they ran out of things to do and, luckily for them, Paige had actually thrown them in there when she found that they had extra room. They really weren't all that large or complicated to figure out, and she packed up the bags again in minutes.

"Come on, Fields, put a smile back on that face and let's go see if we can catch us something!"

Emily grumbled the entire way to the nearest body of water that wasn't the waterfall. It was a half an hour walk with all of their gear on their backs, but when they finally got there it was a cute enough little lake and it suddenly didn't seem so bad anymore. Paige helped her get her fishing pole set up and then did her own and the two of them cast their lines. Afterwards, she got out her book and sat on the grassy edge of the lake with her pole resting on a Y-shaped stick that she had broken off of a tree to use as a support. Emily was sitting next to her, leaning back on her hands and letting herself bask in the sun, her fishing pole set up in a similar manner. It was an eerie throwback to how they started this entire camping thing, something that crossed Paige's mind just as a tug came on Emily's mind and she squealed.

Paige put her book down quickly and gestured towards the line. "Em, come on, pick it up!" Her girlfriend did and then began to reel it in, stopping every few inches or so to see if the fish was still fighting. "Go, go, go!" Paige cheered her on. From the looks of it it was going to be quite the big fish. Emily kept reeling, the fish kept fighting, and Paige kept cheering, until suddenly Emily pulled back and the fish came soaring out of the water and flopped onto the ground between them.

The two girls stared down at it and Paige tried not to snort.

She failed.

It was a shiner, which meant it wasn't very large at all. Finally Emily leaned down, picked it up, unhooked it, and gently let it go back into the water. "I still caught a fish," she said calmly, "and you haven't caught a thing."

That shut Paige up.

—

Paige ended up catching several lake trout and one nasty looking pike before they left, and Emily caught one trout and a weird looking fish that neither of them could identify but that neither really wanted to look at for too long, either.

It was finally time for them to go home, and Paige was loading the stuff into the car when Emily came up behind her and wrapped her arms around her waist, resting her cheek on Paige's back. Paige stopped what she was doing and put her hands on Emily's, rubbing her fingers over the other girl's knuckles. "I had a really great time," Emily started. "I'm really glad you made me come."

Paige chuckled and Emily smiled as the sound reverberated throughout her body and against her cheek. "I'm glad you came. It would've been pretty lonely if I came by myself. I mean, I probably could've stayed with those hikers, but I still would have been lonely."

Emily let go of Paige's waist and waited for Paige to turn around before she kissed her, long and sweet and slow, nudging her up against the back of the car. Paige responded by putting her arms around Emily's neck and lacing her fingers together as Emily's hands settled on her waist. When they broke apart, Emily rested her forehead against Paige's and smiled crookedly. "We should go camping again sometime."

Paige's eyes went wide and she pulled back, pretending to be shocked. "Why, Miss Emily Fields wants to go camping? Voluntarily? Call 911, we have an emergency!" Emily smacked her shoulder and then pointed to the car.

"Get in the car and take me home, you goof."

Paige bowed before actually unlocking the car and climbing in, waiting until Emily was all buckled in and making sure that everything was still alright in the car before she left. They argued over the radio station during the entire ride home, talked about how scary their spider encounter had been, made fun of each other's fishing catches, and talked wistfully about how much fun the waterfall and stargazing had been. Rosewood was going to seem so tame in comparison now.

Paige dropped Emily off at her house, leaning over the console to kiss her. "Have fun with Hanna, Aria, and Spencer, hon," she called out as Emily went up the walk, turning around to wave.

The first thing both girls did when they got into their rooms was change the backgrounds on their computers to the picture that they had taken right before leaving in front of the "Lancaster Falls Campgrounds" sign as a reminder of the best weekend of their entire summer.


End file.
